I’m the West Coast representative for Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum. I was a political columnist for SFGate.com (San Francisco Chronicle online) from 2004-2008. I've written for the Algemeiner, Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, Independent Journal Review, American Thinker, FrontPage Magazine, Jihad Watch, Family Security Matters, Accuracy In Media, Newsbusters, Israel National News, Jewish Press, J-The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California, and many others.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Somalia, Iraq and the Price of Defeat

9 Comments:

Anonymous said...

The lesson from Viet Nam is that you don't start a war when you have no immediate, direct interest in the fight. You lose public support. Same deal here. There was no reason to attack Iraq, and now the government has lost public support. Didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that would happen. Until we stay out of the Arab's business, and fix the Israeli problem, we'll have this trouble. See the Baker report.

Wow, someone talking about the Fact and Truth about what is going on right now with this War on Terror. Someone who understands that once Saddam was removed from power a new and different war started with the Terrorist. Thank you for telling the truth and I am suprised the SF Chronicle published it.

There are few things more annoying to me than a woman who opines strongly in a pro-war way but doesn't go join the fighting she is promoting. You're only too gung-ho, as long as other people are doing the bleeding, that is. Since you're all for this so-called "war on terror" why don't you sign up and go over there, pick up an M-16 and try your luck, Cinnamon? Oh, you don't want to? Didn't think so, you adorable hypocritical little combat cheerleader.

Another thing, Cinnamon---your whole "post-9/11 perspective" is very naive because you are evidently painfully unaware of the fact that 9/11 was a false-flag operation run by elements of the US government. It was not done solely by Arabs with box-cutters who couldn't even successfully train to fly Cessnas, as the Bush administration would like you to (and has succeeded in making you) believe. Those "terrorists" were CIA assets and patsies, and the whole government story about 9/11 is a pack of lies. You have been duped. Open your mind. Real information is out there on the web if you just look. There is even a former high-level Bush cabinet official, Morgan Reynolds, who has publicly stated that he believes that the official story of the WTC collapses is bogus. Why don't you start here: http://www.wanttoknow.info/050908insidejob911

I know it's a very painful epiphany, but it's one we are all going to have to have before we can fix all of this.

Until we stay out of the Arab's business, and fix the Israeli problem, we'll have this trouble.

Since the Israeli problem IS the Arabs, how can we fix it by staying out of "Arab business" ?

Unless we just green-light Israel to raze the West Bank, Gaza, and Syria... Is that what you had in mind ?

There are few things more annoying to me than a woman who opines strongly in a pro-war way but doesn't go join the fighting she is promoting.

Yes, Crazy Cowardly Anonymous poster, it's certainly true that one ought not discuss anything that one doesn't have first-hand experience with, for after all, vicarious experience is worthless, right ?

Oh, wait, another term for "vicarious experience" is "education" - schoolkids didn't participate in any of the historical events that they study, nor did they contribute to discovering any of the scientific knowledge that they gain.

Therefore people without vicarious experience - "knowledge" - are ipso facto exactly as ignorant as are young children.

The reason why 36% of america is still behind bush is because there are still fools who believe that toppling saddam delivered us the war on terror. No... for the umpteenth time. What it did was to create the conditions for the pre-existing tribal animosity to flare into open warfare. And thanks to bush we're stuck fighting another countries civil war. This has nothing to do with the war on terror. It never did. This has always been a naive attempt to impose our will and to safegaurd oil resources. Nothing else. Like Vietnam it is failing badly and the majority of the country recognizes it. Unlike many of you here us 65 percenters know the difference between a war on terror and a misguided empirial adventure.

(CNN) -- The Arabic-language network Al-Jazeera released a full transcript Monday of the most recent videotape from Osama bin Laden in which the head of al Qaeda said his group's goal is to force America into bankruptcy.

Al-Jazeera aired portions of the videotape Friday but released the full transcript of the entire tape on its Web site Monday.

"We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah," bin Laden said in the transcript.

He said the mujahedeen fighters did the same thing to the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s, "using guerrilla warfare and the war of attrition to fight tyrannical superpowers."

"We, alongside the mujahedeen, bled Russia for 10 years until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat," bin Laden said.

He also said al Qaeda has found it "easy for us to provoke and bait this administration."

"All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations," bin Laden said.

Al-Jazeera executives said they decided to post the entire speech because rumors were circulating that the network omitted parts that "had direct threats toward specific states, which was totally untrue."

"We chose the most newsworthy parts of the address and aired them. The rest was used in lower thirds in graphics format," said one official.

U.S. intelligence officials Monday confirmed that the transcript made public Monday by Al-Jazeera was a complete one.

As part of the "bleed-until-bankruptcy plan," bin Laden cited a British estimate that it cost al Qaeda about $500,000 to carry out the attacks of September 11, 2001, an amount that he said paled in comparison with the costs incurred by the United States.

"Every dollar of al Qaeda defeated a million dollars, by the permission of Allah, besides the loss of a huge number of jobs," he said. "As for the economic deficit, it has reached record astronomical numbers estimated to total more than a trillion dollars.

The total U.S. national debt is more than $7 trillion. The U.S. federal deficit was $413 billion in 2004, according to the Treasury Department.

"It is true that this shows that al Qaeda has gained, but on the other hand it shows that the Bush administration has also gained, something that anyone who looks at the size of the contracts acquired by the shady Bush administration-linked mega-corporations, like Halliburton and its kind, will be convinced.

"And it all shows that the real loser is you," he said. "It is the American people and their economy."

As for President Bush's Iraq policy, Bin Laden said, "the darkness of black gold blurred his vision and insight, and he gave priority to private interests over the public interests of America.

"So the war went ahead, the death toll rose, the American economy bled, and Bush became embroiled in the swamps of Iraq that threaten his future," bin Laden said.

U.S. government officials said Friday that the tape appeared to be authentic and recently made. It was the first videotaped message from the al Qaeda leader in nearly three years.

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I’m the West Coast representative for Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum. I was a political columnist for SFGate.com (San Francisco Chronicle online) from 2004-2008. I've written for the Algemeiner, Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, Independent Journal Review, American Thinker, FrontPage Magazine, Jihad Watch, Family Security Matters, Accuracy In Media, Newsbusters, Israel National News, Jewish Press, J-The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California, and many others.